Qantas flights delayed due to falling space debris from SpaceX rocket launches

The Australian airline Qantas delayed several recent flights due to last-minute notice of falling debris from SpaceX rocket launches.

SpaceX uses the southern Indian Ocean as its reentry point, thanks to its remoteness, but flights between Sydney and Johannesburg pass through the region, and the airline has asked for more precise warnings.

As space becomes more widely used, debris is becoming a problem: As well as its threat to other satellites, larger items survive atmospheric reentry and can pose a threat to people on the ground. Kenyan authorities are investigating the provenance of a 1,100lb, eight-foot-wide metal ring which fell from space on New Year’s Eve, believed to be part of a European Space Agency rocket.